8 Lessons Learned on Differentiating Instruction. My differentiation journey began in 2004 when my principal asked me to attend a weeklong summer conference on differentiated instruction.
I was eager to please my principal so I quickly accepted her offer. I was also extremely curious about how I, one person, could possibly address the individual needs of 100 students. By the end of the conference, I was totally overwhelmed with information: flexible grouping, assessment, inventories, tiered lessons, Carol Ann Tomlinson. Redesigning Education: Rethinking the School Corridor. "I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder how we could have tolerated anything so primitive.
"-John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, "No Easy Victories" (1968) Education reform is in the air and taking root in thousands of classrooms across the country. From overhauling No Child Left Behind to closing poorly performing schools and raising student expectations, the push for change is powerful. Yet, the space where most learning takes place--the school and classroom--has changed little over the last 200 years. What Students Need to Learn:Knowing Your Learning Target. The Thinking Classroom: Ways of Thinking. Effective thinking-centered instruction aims to achieve two educational objectives: To cultivate the active use of knowledge, and To help students become self-regulated learners.
Toward that end, this section of The Thinking Classroom highlights four thinking-centered approaches for infusing high-level thinking instruction into your regular curriculum. The Ways of Teaching Thinking region features a preview and description of each of the approaches. Why These Four Approaches?